Unidentified wire - NOT bonnet release cable

[simon996]

Made the mistake of doing a bit of exploring today!?!

Took out the headlamp units on my 2003 996 C4, to clean and check for rust under the wings. On the passenger side I found an odd thin wire which runs underneath the headlamp unit and then tracks forwards and down to somewhere behind the bumper. It is connected to some sort of unit which is covered in insulation tape and mounted on the underside of the wing above and behind the headlamp unit. This unit looks like some sort of after-market device, given the way it is "mounted".

The wire is no longer attached to anywhere behind the bumper because I pulled on it......oops. The end of this thin black wire is terminated with a plastic end cap and does not appear to have been an electrical connector, more like a sensor (looks to small for that) or an antenna wire.

Anybody have any ideas what this is? I wondered if it might be a tracker device.

 

[Nick_USA]

ORIGINAL: simon996 Made the mistake of doing a bit of exploring today!?! Took out the headlamp units on my 2003 996 C4, to clean and check for rust under the wings. On the passenger side I found an odd thin wire which runs underneath the headlamp unit and then tracks forwards and down to somewhere behind the bumper. It is connected to some sort of unit which is covered in insulation tape and mounted on the underside of the wing above and behind the headlamp unit. This unit looks like some sort of after-market device, given the way it is "mounted". The wire is no longer attached to anywhere behind the bumper because I pulled on it......oops. The end of this thin black wire is terminated with a plastic end cap and does not appear to have been an electrical connector, more like a sensor (looks to small for that) or an antenna wire. Anybody have any ideas what this is? I wondered if it might be a tracker device.

It is or was the emergency boot release. The bumper end should be connected to the boot lock.

 

[simon996]

Thanks for the suggestion, but it wasn't the emergency bonnet release, which I identified on the driver's side. This wire is black insulated electrical wire, rather than the bare metallic twisted wire of the emergency bonnet release. Thanks anyway.

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

Sounds very much like a tracker to me too.

 

[SteveMorrow]

The other guys that replied may have already discounted this, but it's not the outside air temperature gauge is it? Not sure where the wire leads to under the bonnet, but the sensor itself just sticks through the front bumber in one of the air intake holes.

 

[simon996]

Temperature sensor was my first thought. But....sensor is on the other side and has two wires coming from it, both of which still intact. So I don't think it's that. Thanks for the suggestion though.